Restless

It's been an emotional roller coaster these last few days. There's been a few issues at work and I've been wrestling with a life changing decision because of it. I'll start at the beginning:

I work in an OR (aka operating room for those of you who aren't into the medical "lingo") and a few months ago our OR was shut down. No worries, it wasn't because of something bad, it was just the hospital reorganizing. We merged with another group from another OR, forming an orthopedic OR. The other group came from the self-proclaimed "main" OR of the hospital. I had a fear from the moment we found out about this change that they would try to take over the OR... and boy was I right. It was a slow process, during which I had hoped my fears were unwarranted and premature. But boy have things changed in the last months. I feel like they don't respect us because we come from a smaller OR. They came into this believing that we didn't do "real" work. That none of us really knew how to do orthopedic surgery. Truth is, we know MORE than them. All they do is "totals" (ie total hip and knee replacements). We do hands and feet and arthroscopic surgeries ON TOP of doing totals. To break it down, we OWN. But either way, the respect is lacking and the dictatorship has taken over. They've phased out our charge nurse and demoted her, they've changed our calls and vacation requests to match THEIR needs. We're being ignored, bullied. We're Cinderella. I'm tired of feeling like the stepchild.

Fast forward, I've been offered another job. A great opportunity to expand my experience and knowledge base. I would learn different types of surgeries besides orthopedic, I would be working with pediatric patients (challenge alert!), and I would also get trained in admission as well as immediate post-op recovery. I'd be working in a smaller hospital that's closer to my house. This means less travel time as well as a closer knit workplace due to its size. So what's my problem? I feel like I haven't stayed at my current position long enough. I've only worked as a nurse for a year and a half. I have less than 2 years experience in orthopedics. I feel like that isn't enough. I feel like I would be leaving too soon. I feel like I don't know as much as I should about orthopedics.

Dilemma. Should I tough it out for another year and feel unappreciated or should I take the plunge and broaden my horizons...?

Stay tuned...